How do we know?

Knowledge is defined as a justified, true belief. According to Plato, for someone to know something, it must be justified, true, and the person must believe in it.

Forms Of Knowledge:

Impersonal Propositional Knowledge.
Personal Knowledge.
Subconscious Knowledge.

So if knowledge is a true belief that has to be justified, how can we justify it?
There are three theories we can use to justify a belief.

- Correspondence Theory
This is when we compare the belief to the facts of senses, experience and logic.
E.G. If I know that I don't like onions and they have made me throw up every time I eat them, then I can justify that eating an onion now would make me throw up.

- Pragmatic Theory
Personal thoughts. What we know that can justify our beliefs.
E.G. I dislike Nicki Minaj.

- Coherence Theory
By definition.
E.G. We know a t-shirt is an item of clothing because it is defined as such.

A Universal Truth.

To find out if something we know is a universal truth, we apply the PIE test.

Public
Independent
Eternal

Is the truth Public? Can it be accessed by anyone in the world? Is it available to everyone?
Is the truth Independent? Can it be personally applied to you? Is it true to you?
Is the truth Eternal? Will it last forever?

If so, then it is a Universal Truth.

A universal truth is a permanent fact and can be applied everywhere no matter where you are.

Ways Of Knowing.
- Perception Of Senses
- Sense Experiences are experiences we have due to the operation of our senses.
- Perceptions are the bigger picture we mainly construct from our Sense Experiences and personal frames we bring to them.

Paradigms.
Paradigms are a conceptual system or model for understanding experience.

Areas Of Knowing.
- Natural Science
- Maths
- Ethics
- Art
- History

Oh and the powerpoint says we should make a table.
IB1
TOK
By:
Kastriot Osmani